Russell: Verstappen's plan was really good.

      George Russell does not rule out that Mercedes could follow the tactics used by Max Verstappen in the final of yesterday's qualifying, which allowed the Red Bull Racing driver to win pole.

      Due to the crash of Lando Norris, the session was interrupted, and only Oscar Piastri managed to complete the fastest lap at that moment, while the others had to interrupt their attempts. But Verstappen interrupted his first fast lap without actually starting it, meaning he had two fresh sets of soft tires left.

      But in order to use them, the team had to make a pit stop in a "racing style" without rolling Max's car into the garage, as is usually done during qualifying. Therefore, initially there should have been more fuel in the tank of his RB21 than needed for one fast lap. As a result, in his final attempt, the reigning world champion scored 0.010 seconds better than Piastri's time. And Russell was only the third.

      "I have mixed feelings right now, because I thought I could do a lap faster,– the Mercedes driver admitted after qualifying. – The pressure before the last attempt was quite strong, because Oscar had already completed his lap, and Max's plan to make two attempts was really good. We didn't decide to act like that, although when you've already set the lap time, the pressure immediately becomes less…

      And when you haven't done a single fast lap yet, you don't have a choice, and if you make even the slightest mistake, you'll end up in 10th position. So the 3rd result is still much better than I thought."

      When George was asked if Mercedes had discussed a course of action similar to the one used by Verstappen, he admitted that the team had not ruled it out.: "To be honest, such a plan has been discussed. Although we rather discussed the option in which we would first install a fresh Soft kit, and only then a rolled-up one. But I'm sure there was such a discussion on the pit wall.

      I'm not aware of all the conversations, because I'm driving a car after all, and in this situation I have to trust the team's choice. But when a rider realizes that he has only one attempt left, especially on a track like this, it requires complete concentration, and by turn 1 I just didn't feel the necessary confidence yet..."